PANASONIC-CORPORATION

Panasonic Corporation today announced that it has developed freeze-ray,
an Optical Disc-Based Data Archive System in collaboration with
Facebook. By collaborating with Facebook, Panasonic was able to design
freeze-ray to meet the growing demand for more efficient and sustainable
ways to store and access cold data -- infrequently or never accessed
data stored for the long term -- in the world’s data centers.

The freeze-ray solution reduces data center operating costs and energy
use with strong data integrity. This data archiving solution provides
optimal cold storage for protecting data integrity and reducing costs in
data centers thanks to the special characteristics of optical discs,
including their longevity, immutability, backward compatibility, low
power consumption and tolerance to environmental changes. Both companies
see the freeze-ray data archiving solution, incorporating hundreds of
optical discs, as a viable solution for data centers to enable the
industry to enjoy the benefits of the solution with greater economies of
scale.

Panasonic’s main contribution to the effort was its high-density optical
technology, key devices (optical discs, drives and related robotics) and
library software to control the system easily in the data center.
Facebook collaborated by providing its unmatched expertise in designing,
deploying, managing and servicing storage systems in data centers. In
addition, Facebook provided extensive technical and real-world data
center feedback at every stage of the development. Both companies have
been working on two generations of the freeze-ray solution. Facebook is
deploying the first-generation 100 GB Blu-ray Disc-based archive system
into its data centers now, and expects deployment of the
second-generation 300GB Archival Disc-based archive system later in 2016.

“As Facebook continues to grow, we needed to address some of our
fundamental engineering challenges with an efficient, low-cost and
sustainable solution that matches our speed and exabyte-scale of data,”
said Jason Taylor, PhD, VP of Infrastructure, Facebook. "We're seeing
exponential growth in the number of photos and videos being uploaded to
Facebook, and the work we’ve done with Panasonic is exciting because
optical storage introduces a medium that is immutable, which helps
ensure that people have long-term access to their digital memories.”

“Panasonic is delighted by the opportunity to collaborate with Facebook,
with its strong position and influence in the data storage market and
expertise necessary to develop the optical data archiver in validation
with actual data center environments,” said Yasuji Enokido, President of
Panasonic’s AVC Networks Company. “With this data archiver, we expect
the industry will be able to enjoy the benefits of the optical
technology that Panasonic has been refining over the past 30 years both
in the consumer market and B2B applications.“

Both companies plan to continue to collaborate in the study of and
eventual development of next- generation systems utilizing higher
densities of 500 GB-and one-terabyte Archival Discs to realize a multi
petabyte cold storage archive system that will provide even greater
benefits to the data center industry.

About Panasonic
Panasonic Corporation is a worldwide leader
in the development of diverse electronics technologies and solutions for
customers in the consumer electronics, housing, automotive, enterprise
solutions and device industries. Since its founding in 1918, the company
has expanded globally and now operates 468 subsidiaries and 94
associated companies worldwide, recording consolidated net sales of
7.715 trillion yen for the year ended March 31, 2015. Committed to
pursuing new value through innovation across divisional lines, the
company uses its technologies to create a better life and a better world
for its customers. To learn more about Panasonic: http://www.panasonic.com/global